The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Oliver Knispel

Stephane Houchard

Arnaud Caron

Christian Windisch

Sebastien Willy Fontaine

Armand Rene Gabriel Leconte

Helmut Wolfgang Fehl

Saburo Miyabe

Dirk Willi Ommert

Ben Glesener

Soundappan Ramanathan

Thomas Michael Hirsch

Dieter Rolf Jürgen Krenz

Helmut Otto Meister

Joachim Christian Seipel

Andrea Weber

Olivier Guy Jacques

Dieter Rolf Juergen Krenz

Tire

A vehicle wheel tire includes a tire tread having a circumferential center tread region in which block elements are arranged in a symmetric pattern on opposite sides of a tire circumferential equatorial centerplane. The tread has one or more circumferential grooves bounded by edges of opposing block elements, pairs of opposed block elements having a block edge facing the groove and an array of saw-teeth formed along the groove-facing edge of opposed block elements inclined in the radial direction. The saw-teeth on a block edge of one opposed block element incline in a direction opposite to the inclination direction of saw-teeth on opposite opposed block element. A block element on the center tread region side of the groove has multiple circumferentially spaced apart and laterally extending sipes extending across the block element. The sipes extend to and align with the array of saw-teeth along the groove-facing edge of the block element.

Gripping edges for winter tire

A vehicle wheel tire includes a tire tread having a circumferential center tread region in which block elements are arranged in a symmetric pattern on opposite sides of a tire circumferential equatorial centerplane. Symmetrically disposed block elements on opposite sides of the centerplane have a plurality of spaced apart and laterally extending wavy sipes extending across the block element. Selective pairs of adjacent sipes are interconnected by one or more circumferentially oriented notches. The wavy sipes have regions of varying depth and include one or more recessed region(s) and one or more non-recessed region(s). A circumferentially disposed notch interconnecting a pair of adjacent wavy sipes at opposite notch ends intersects the wavy sipes at non-recessed sipe regions.

Winter tire tread siping pattern

A vehicle wheel tire center tread region has a repeating circumferential array of first substantially V-shaped grooves positioned on the centerplane, each first V-shaped groove having divergent first groove side arms extending in a first circumferential direction, and a repeating circumferential array of second substantially V-shaped grooves positioned on the centerplane and having divergent second groove side arms extending in a second circumferential direction opposite to the first circumferential direction. Each first V-shaped groove is overlapped by multiple oppositely directed second V-shaped grooves. The first V-shaped groove arms have a varying lengthwise depth that varies between about 2 and 7 millimeters from a shallower depth proximate to a vertex arm region to an increased depth at a medial arm region to a decreased depth at a terminal arm region. The first V-shaped groove arms further vary in width as well as depth from a narrower vertex arm region to a wider medial arm region to a narrow terminal arm region so that the volume of the groove arms per length unit is substantially constant in the medial arm region.

Winter tire center tread pattern

Both a mold blade for forming sipes and the sipe so formed in a tire tread element have three-dimensional portions. In the formed sipe, the three-dimensional portion creates a constant interlocking of the opposing sipe faces. The blade and the sipe have two radially adjacent rows of projections, wherein the projections are separated by a planar section, the planar section having a defined length and width.

Three-dimensional tread sipes and mold blade for forming three-dimensional tread sipes

Tire tread

Growing community of inventors

Gelnhausen-Hailer, Germany

Oliver Knispel